|
E-mail this page to a friend!
Features for Senior Citizens
States Begin Regulating In-Store Health Clinics Amid
Safety Concerns
American Medical Association initiated concern says
WSJ
 Aug. 9, 2007 - More states are looking into the
quality of care offered by clinics in retail locations in response to a
campaign by the
American Medical
Association and physician groups that asked states to
investigate
in-store clinics, the
Wall Street Journal
reports.
Despite arguments from retail clinics that AMA's
criticisms "are overblown and motivated by financial concerns," some
states that once gave the clinics "extensive waivers from hygiene and
safety restrictions" are beginning to crack down as the facilities grow
in number nationwide, according to the
Journal.
There are more than 730 retail clinics throughout
the U.S., and
CVS Caremark,
Wal-Mart Stores,
Walgreen
and
Target
all have plans to expand their number of clinics this year. Some have
established new restrictions on in-store clinics, while others ban them
altogether.
Rhode Island has refused to let CVS Caremark open
clinics in the state; Florida requires clinics to post a sign stating
whether a physician is present and disclose staffers' credentials to
patients; and California has mandated that retail clinics be owned by a
physician. Meanwhile, some states, such as Texas and Wyoming, have
reduced restrictions on the treatments that nurse practitioners can
administer in the clinics, the
Journal
reports.
In the debate over regulations, CVS Caremark has
been working to demonstrate that its clinics adequately administer the
appropriate treatments within the scope of services provided. Company
officials cite a study to be released later this year in the
American Journal of
Medical Quality finding that for sore throats -- the most
common condition treated at in-store clinics -- the facilities gave
proper treatment 99.15% of the time, according to the
Journal.
Forrester
Research found that patients at retail clinics use them
because of convenience, not quality, with 7% of respondents to a survey
saying they thought the care they received was better than that at a
typical visit to a physician office, the
Journal
reports.
Massachusetts Retail Clinic Hearing
After reviewing a CVS Caremark proposal to open its
MinuteClinics as the state's first retail clinics, health regulators in
Massachusetts on Wednesday proposed regulations that now are under
consideration by the state's
Public Health
Council, the
Journal
reports (Seward,
Wall Street Journal,
8/9).
During a hearing, council members expressed
concerns that patients would not receive adequate care if they go to
retail clinics and that patients may use the clinics to obtain
prescription drugs that their regular physicians would not prescribe,
the
Boston Globe reports. Paul Dreyer, director of the
Massachusetts
Division of Health Care Quality, said that such abuse would
not be a problem because the clinics will not "be prescribing drugs of
interest to drug abusers."
Physician groups, hospitals and community health
centers also expressed concerns about how patient safety and infection
control would be monitored at the clinics, according to the
Globe.
The
Massachusetts
Department of Public Health will hold a public hearing Sept.
5. If Massachusetts allows retail clinics, CVS Caremark's clinics each
would need individual states' approval to operate, the
Globe
reports (Smith/Kowalczyk,
Boston Globe,
8/9).
Bruce Auerbach, president-elect of the
Massachusetts
Medical Society and chief of emergency medicine at
Sturdy Memorial
Hospital, said, "You're crowding people who may be sick, not
to mention potentially exposing someone who's just trying to buy
Doritos" (Wall
Street Journal, 8/9).
Michael Howe, CEO of CVS Caremark's MinuteClinic,
in an e-mail said, "MinuteClinic can serve a critical health care need
by providing convenient, affordable access to quality health care for
common medical conditions. As Massachusetts expands access to health
insurance to hundreds of thousands of people, we know that demand for
basic health care services will increase" (Boston
Globe, 8/9).
Click to More Senior News on the
Front Page
Copyright: SeniorJournal.com |
